THE ZENITH OF EMPIRE 19

the Anti (hill-men) and Kensetin (cattle-men), who

were encountered.

Remembering the recent history of Egypt and

the Sudan, it appears but a repetition of its ex-

periences in those far-away days, for when Amasis I. had conquered the cattle-rearing countries of the

south, and had returned to Egypt, a prototype of

the Mahdi arose, who, preaching a primitive jehad,

victoriously attacked the strong forts at Semneh

and elsewhere, and carried destruction to temples and their contents ; but, in common with a suc-

cessor, the Khalifa of his day, he eventually yielded

to the superior power from the north.

Of the Kings of this dynasty, Thotmes III.

appears to have most vigorously asserted the

domination of Egypt, and the divisions of the Sudan are now first named.

His aunt. Queen Hatshepset, whose temple is to

this day the most lovely sight at Deir-el-Bahari,

Thebes, had sent an expedition by ship down the

Red Sea, and inland into Punt, a name given to

the territory stretching, probably, from the south of

Khartoum to the Red Sea, and prolific in all the

products of the Sudan, there found in abundance,

such as gum, ebony, ivory, antimony, and wild

animals.

Under Thotmes III. one might well speak of

the " Egyptian Empire," extending its limits as it

did, by virtue of his conquests, from the Euphrates

to regions beyond Uauat (Northern Nubia), Kush

(the country north of Khartoum), and yet again

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